SQL Server Reporting Services – Opening an RDL in Older Version of Visual Studio Opens as XML

In order to fix this issue, you need to remove a few lines of code from the XML.

1. 1. Replace xmlns with:

      <Report xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/sqlserver/reporting/2008/01/reportdefinition" xmlns:rd="http://schemas.microsoft.com/SQLServer/reporting/reportdesigner">

   2. Remove only the Report Section header and footer tags (leave the child elements)

      <ReportSections>
      <ReportSection>
      
      ..................................
      
      </ReportSection>
      </ReportSections>

   3. Remove the entire ReportParametersLayout section

      <ReportParametersLayout>
      
      <GridLayoutDefinition>
      
      .....................................
      
      </GridLayoutDefinition>
      
      </ReportParametersLayout>